The bark before Christmas
(Book)

There s nothing lovelier than Christmas in Connecticut, but Melanie Travis can scarcely find a moment to enjoy the festivities. With her youngest son approaching toddlerhood, she s decided to return to her old job at Howard Academy, a posh private school attended by the children of Greenwich s well-heeled gentry. Balancing work, motherhood, and the hectic dog show circuit takes some fancy footwork, especially when the headmaster taps her to be the chairman of the school s Christmas Bazaar. The Christmas Bazaar is Howard Academy s biggest and most important fundraiser, so Melanie feels the pressure to make it a huge success. But everything goes awry when a prize show dog goes missing and Santa turns up dead. The dog s owner is one of the school s most perfectly pedigreed alums, and she enlists Melanie to help find the purloined pooch. But just as Melanie starts pawing at the truth, she digs up a sleighful of sinister secrets that leaves everyone feeling less than merry . . . A whodunit sure to please dog-loving cozy readers. Publishers Weekly".